Killer Whales in Bremer Bay on a beautiful summers day as we spent time with Queen and Cookies family pods as they foraged, rested and socialised in The Patch. The morning began with a cloudy sky and shortly after arriving John Totterdell and his team updated us on the Orca activity as Noosa and members of the family were relaxed and sleeping. Hanging out with them during the morning sleep-in we watched as they settled into a steady rhythm and moved gently. Orca will rest one half of their brain at a time and do not enter a deep sleep the same way humans will as they are voluntary breathers and think about every inhale and exhale that they take. A resting Orca can be completely still or moving very slowly and this morning the family was moving slowly and soaking up the opportunity for a quick snooze. Queen and Noosa were planning the day ahead while the family rested and soon the call went out to get back to work.
A surge to the west was efficient as they spread out and the calves seemed to be revelling in the opportunity for some fun. It appeared they may have heard something as the surge was deliberate and all pulled up at the same location and began to search. Looking carefully we watched on to see if they had been able to surround their possible breakfast and prevent it from evading them. The body language of the Orca relaxed as they settled back in to forage mode with the two families still mixing and travelling together. Cookie spent some time with Three Stripes and Shredder along with the calves as they moved back up to the heart of The Patch as El Notcho kept an eye on things happening on the outskirts. Toby had a great opportunity of collecting some imagery of the Orca working the feeding grounds and it is always amazing to see the symmetry the Orca have from a birds-eye view. Killer Whales in Bremer Bay are always a joy to spend time with and it was another fantastic day with these incredible apex predators.
